Arundel takes aggressive stance on environmental violations

Andrea F. Siegel, The Baltimore Sun

An Anne Arundel County waterfront landowner and a contractor accused of doing work without a permit have been hit with financial penalties and probation in the first two cases brought under the county's aggressive new environmental enforcement strategy.

County officials and prosecutors say they will continue to go beyond traditional enforcement measures, using civil and criminal penalties to protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries from serious violations.

"The stakes have gone up dramatically," said Joseph F. Devlin, one of the attorneys for Emanuel Krousaniotakis, the owner of waterfront property outside Annapolis. "The criminal option certainly adds a whole new element to enforcement."

Traditional enforcement strategies include stop-work orders and requiring people to apply for permits after they have begun a project.

Krousaniotakis, of Bowie, and Mixqui Construction Inc., also of Prince George's County, agreed to pay the county $10,125 for clearing the landowner's property along Ridout Creek without permits, county attorney Jonathan A. Hodgson said.

The waterfront property falls within the 100-foot buffer known as the Chesapeake Bay's Critical Area, and disturbing the land comes under state and local regulation.

The defendants were sentenced to probation before judgment, according to court records. Krousaniotakis received the sentence — which is not a conviction — in December on a charge of clearing a site in the environmentally sensitive strip of land along the creek. The contracting company received the sentence last month.

The defendants may petition a judge to expunge their records after a few years, provided certain conditions are met.

Hodgson said Krousaniotakis, who had belatedly sought permits last spring, will have to replant the site under terms of the agreement. Susan Turner Ford, who also represents Krousaniotakis, said her client is working with county officials on the restoration plan.

"This case is an example of the new, more aggressive code enforcement of county laws," Hodgson said.

Prosecutors acknowledged that there was no indication that the property owner or the contractor intentionally thumbed their noses at the law. But that's no excuse, especially for businesses that should know the rules and regulations governing their work, said Deputy State's Attorney Thomas J. Fleckenstein, who prosecuted the cases.

"We will continue to look at this in appropriate cases," he said. "You are using against offenders a fuller array of what can be used against them."

Frustration that the threat of civil penalties alone have not been enough of a deterrent to land-use violations led county lawyers to meet with prosecutors last spring to devise the two-pronged tactic.

Some landowners knowingly bypass permit requirements and hope they won't get caught. Typically, if they are caught, they apply after the fact for permits required for disturbing sensitive land, draw up a mitigation plan, and perhaps pay a fine. That's the civil side of the enforcement.

"A criminal charge certainly gets people's attention a lot more than a civil lawsuit or something they can just pay," Fleckenstein said.

Criminal charges carry the threat of jail time, a criminal record and being barred from getting certain government contracts, he said.

Devlin, who said Krousaniotakis had no idea he needed permits, added that the lesson is this: "If you have waterfront property, before you do anything, go in and talk to the county."